Mahmud Turkia | afp Libya’s NTC fighters gather in Wishtada, 30 km from Bani Walid southeast of Tripoli, as de facto Libyan premier Mahmud Jibril warned the hardest battles still lie ahead as his fighters came under counter-attack in their offensive on Muammar Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte.                

TRIPOLI, Friday
Heavy fighting was underway Friday outside Bani Walid, a stronghold of deposed Libyan leader Mummar Gaddafi, as forces loyal to the interim government were poised for an assault on the town if it does not surrender.
And while world police body Interpol called for the fugitive Gaddafi’s arrest for crimes against humanity, following a request by the International Criminal Court, there were reports a number of his generals had fled Libya.
The National Transitional Council has set a Saturday deadline for towns still loyal to Gaddafi to surrender, and on-off talks have been going on for days over Bani Walid, where a number of former regime officials, including Gaddafi’s spokesman Mussa Ibrahim, are believed to be holed up.
The town has not yet been attacked, but NTC commander Abdullah al-Khzami said “fierce fighting between our forces and pro-Gaddafi ones were underway in sectors very close” to it.
“The revolutionaries have reached the gates of the city, and its first neighbourhoods lie before us, but we will not enter until the ultimatum expires,” he told AFP amid reports of an undetermined number of casualties.
Colonel Daou al-Salhine al-Jadak, commander of forces around Bani Walid, added that “revolutionaries had begun operations inside” the town, but that could not be independently confirmed.
Columns of smoke and the crump of shelling could be heard by journalists 20 kilometres from Bani Walid.
Earlier, another commander, Abdullah al-Hakim, said pro-Gaddafi forces were shelling his forces about 30 kilometres away “to keep us from advancing on Bani Walid,” and that one of his men had been killed.
And an AFP correspondent said convoys carrying fighters and ammunition were heading toward Bani Walid, 170 kilometres southwest of the capital.
In Brussels, Nato said its aircraft destroyed two Scud missiles around Bani Walid on Friday.
“The intent of Kadhafi forces to use these indiscriminate weapons represents a serious threat to civilians in Libya and demonstrates their willingness to ignore calls for discussions,” said Col Roland Lavoie, the Nato mission’s spokesman.
Meanwhile, on the road to Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte, rebels who on Thursday captured Red Valley, 60 kilometres to the east, were under counter-attack, an AFP correspondent reported.
A source from Niger’s ethnic Tuareg community in Niamey said a number of Libyan generals loyal to Gaddafi were in Burkina Faso after having passed through Niger. (AFP)